Of Showers and Secrets
by Maidenjedi
Summary: Like I couldn't tell she was getting thick around the middle.


TITLE: Of Showers and Secrets  
AUTHOR: Maidenjedi  
RATING: PG  
ARCHIVE: List archives, otherwise please ask.  
SPOILERS: Essence/Existence, general season 8,  
tiny reference to Fearful Symmetry, all things.  
KEYWORDS: implied Kim/Skinner, Scully  
DISCLAIMER: Not mine, thank you very much.  
SUMMARY: Like I couldn't tell she was getting  
thick around the middle.  
  
***  
  
Author's Notes at the end.  
  
  
*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*  
  
  
What kind of baby shower gift do you get for a   
woman you only know from the F.B.I.?  
  
This is the question I ask myself as I walk down  
the aisles of a fluorescent baby store, some place  
I never really knew existed until I turned 34 and  
suddenly every woman I knew was having kids.  
  
Every woman, except of course me.  
  
I swallow my sour grapes and trudge forward, casually  
picking at pink jumpsuits and blue-striped overall sets.  
Pooh Bear on some things, Mickey Mouse on others, and   
the "Carter's" tag on a special display near the end of   
the aisle.   
  
I don't even know Scully all that well. I've worked  
for Walter Skinner for about nine years, and during  
that time, Agents Scully and Mulder have been frequent  
visitors. Generally speaking, though, assistants to  
Assistant Directors don't interact with Special Agents,  
except to say "He'll see you now" or "The assistant  
director is in a meeting; you should come back in an  
hour".   
  
So, I was a little shocked that I'd gotten an invitation.  
I didn't recognize the handwriting on the envelope (and  
I'd know Scully's anywhere, after all these years of   
X-file reports coming across my desk), but I've been to  
enough showers to know that the mom-to-be doesn't do  
the inviting. When my friend Trudy had her first son,  
she was furious to see a few of her husband's   
ex-girlfriends there; apparently, her sister-in-law was  
trying to make some kind of point.  
  
I give up on clothes (babies grow so fast anyway) and  
move over to toys. I finally settle on a stuffed   
elephant, which reminds me of one of the more bizarre  
cases Scully and Mulder worked on. Something about  
invisible zoo animals. I remember Walter shaking his  
head when that case report came through, and muttering  
something about wishing for alien abductions or   
liver-eating mutants.  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
"Hello! Glad you could make it....I'm Maggie Scully,  
Dana's mother. I'll take that, we're setting the  
gifts to the side till after a few games. What's your  
name, I'm so terrible with names and I don't know many  
of Dana's friends...."  
  
"Kim. Kim Cook." I shake Maggie's hand, thinking   
immediately of the differences in the two women.  
Scully had a reputation for being a ballbuster, but  
she was generally subdued and sometimes pensive.  
  
"Ok, I know who you are now. Dana didn't give me much  
to go on; you were the only person from work that she  
wanted to invite."  
  
Needless to say, I look at Maggie's back as she led the  
way into the living room with something more than   
surprise.  
  
In the living room is a bunch of giggling women, all  
swapping stories of childbirth and early growing pains.  
Scully isn't hard to find; she has this smile on her  
face that doesn't quite reach her eyes, and like many  
mothers-to-be she looks uncomfortably warm. Maggie   
seems to notice this at the same time I do, and makes   
a beeline for the thermostat.   
  
There aren't many places left to sit, so I take a chair  
somewhat out of the action and say hello to Scully. She  
looks at me for the first time, and when she smiles again,  
it reaches her eyes.  
  
"Kim, glad to see you could make it!" I'm not deaf, I   
can hear the unmistakable enthusiasm in her voice.  
  
"Wouldn't have missed it, Scully," I say, and even I   
notice the slight surprise in my tone. She smiles a   
little wider.  
  
"Want something to drink? I'm dying of thirst."  
  
"Sure, I can get..."  
  
"I'll go with you. Show you to the kitchen."   
  
Noticing the nearly nine month pregnant hostess  
struggle to her feet stops the women from giggling  
for a few moments. Offers to help her fly from all  
sides, and Scully shakes them all off. As we get a  
little distance away from the group, she whispers  
to me "You'd think I was an invalid instead of pregnant."  
  
I laugh. Scully and I have never been close, never even  
had contact outside the Hoover Building, and here she is  
treating me like a confidante.   
  
A bowl of punch (I shudder inwardly remembering my last  
glass of punch...some sherbet and ginger-ale concoction   
gone awry) sits on the dining room table, but Scully   
bypasses it and goes into the kitchen. "I don't know about  
you, but I was never one for punch made with anything other  
than champagne. So how about a soda?"  
  
Tempting.....  
  
"Sure. Diet Coke?"  
  
She grins. "Of course."  
  
We pop the tops on two cans of caffeine-free Diet Coke   
and stand there for a moment in silence. Laughter   
drifts again from the living room, followed by Maggie's   
voice declaring that it would indeed be easier if we   
all knew the sex of the baby. An annoyed look crossed   
Scully's face.   
  
So I start talking.  
  
"So, who are all these people? You're the only one I know."  
  
"Ironically, I don't know them all either. My mother's   
friends, bridge players and old neighborhood chums. Besides  
her, I really only know my sister-in-law, Tara. And you."  
She takes a swig of her soda.  
  
"To be honest, this is the last place I expected to be   
invited to." I shock even myself with that line.  
  
"Well, Kim, I guess I should tell you why I invited you."  
  
Great, I think. Here's the part where I get a sob story  
about Scully isolating herself for years. I kind of kick  
myself for thinking it, knowing it isn't fair to either  
of us.  
  
And then, she really gives me a shock.  
  
"I wanted to thank you."  
  
"Thank me?"  
  
"Yes." She stops to take another sip of Diet Coke,   
frowning a little at the sound of some guest inquiring  
as to the baby's paternity. "It hasn't been an easy   
year on me. When Mulder went missing....I would have  
shut down, closed up, if it hadn't been for Skinner."  
  
My stomach flips as I realize what she's saying. Apparently,  
there are no secrets in the F.B.I.  
  
"I noticed how much you've covered for him, worked late or  
on weekends, fended off Deputy Director Kersh, all those  
things. I noticed how you held his hand before his eulogy  
at Mulder's, erm, Mulder's funeral. I leaned on him more   
than should have been allowed, but he leaned on you and that  
made it easier on all of us."  
  
I set my soda down for a minute, and look Scully in the eyes.  
She didn't really hint that she knew about my relationship  
with Walter. But the way she meets my searching glance tells  
me all I need to know. Scully had the same kind of relationship  
with Mulder; unspoken, even when the whole world might be able  
to guess. Built more on the need for each other at first, which  
grows at some point into a natural want. She knows what its like,  
I think, to wait up for him, hold him at night, and stave off nightmares  
with kisses and passionate sex. She knows what it is to take off  
your shoes at his apartment and find yourself buttoning your shirt  
eight hours later.   
  
"We have to be there for them all the time, don't we."  
It's not a question, really. And she nods.  
  
"They're always there for us, though, too. So its worth it."  
Her eyes drop as she rubs her stomach almost absentmindedly.  
"I wanted to thank you, Kim, because without you, I wouldn't  
have made it either. And besides," she raised her eyes as she  
gave me a mischievous smile, "my little boy could always use  
a stuffed elephant."  
  
My eyes widen, and then my hastily wrapped package appears in  
my peripheral vision. Hey, I never claimed to be Martha Stewart.  
  
I laugh. "Shall we get back to the action, then?"  
  
Scully smiles. "Why not?"  
  
A little later, when her mother badgers her yet again to know  
the sex of the Impending Stranger, Scully winks at me.   
  
After all, I'm there as her friend.  
  
  
*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*  
  
Author's Notes: This story never would have seen the  
light of day without my stalker and beta-reader Kristen_K2.  
Showers of chocolate-covered Skinners will be littering  
your yard as soon as it can be arranged! Thanks for catching  
my its/it's habit, and for guiding me through the end.  
  
Of course, many more thanks to the Wives at the Harem, for  
providing a haven during the death throes of Our Show, and  
to the girls at XPFC for the baby shower discussion.  
And as always, for Michael, the other shoe, for being there.  
  
Feedback/Criticism at texgoddess@yahoo.com 


End file.
